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I find this very surprising. Little to no warm-up? I would think this probably accounts for a lot of the muscle pulls and tendon injuries that has been plaguing them. Glad to see they are implementing some corrective actions.
Seems a lot of teams are planning for more up tempo games this offseason, the emphasis on conditioning could pay off.

Well, the evidence that warm up prior to exercise reduces injury is inconclusive.
[URL]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16679062[/URL]

So while it made sense to warm up, it isnt clear that that was what was responsible for the injuries.

Coach Mike Tomlin canceled the final day of minicamp, perhaps not wanting to test his spring's near-perfect record -- just two lost starters to surgeries.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had knee surgery last week but declared himself nearly ready for action and certainly ready when the Steelers open training camp. Offensive tackle Mike Adams returned to the team to watch practice Wednesday after he was stabbed in the stomach June 1 on Carson Street. He, too, supposedly will be ready to go when training camp opens July 26.

The Steelers lost 78 starts to injuries in 2012, and those might have helped drag down their record to 8-8. Steelers president Art Rooney II declared afterward that they needed to investigate why they had so many injuries and what they can do to prevent them.

"I think we do have to look at everything we are doing," Rooney said in January. "And we will look at everything we are doing from a training and conditioning side of things and a practice side of things and see if there are things we can do to get better."

They employed some different tactics this spring. Players now are required to warm up more intently and for a longer period before practice, and the team has given each player a stress test.

Safety Ryan Clark, who rarely misses games because of injuries, believes more can be done and not necessarily by the team.

"I think the team can't put the blame on themselves for that," said Clark, 33, the Steelers' starting free safety since 2006. "They want to because this is an organization that accepts responsibility, an organization that is accountable.

"But it's on each individual guy. Although we are a team, we're independent contractors, and, if we don't go out and train ourselves and get ourselves in the best condition to play football, you're going to have injuries. I don't think the team can change that."

Clark has missed just two games to injuries in the past five seasons. He missed those in 2008 because of a shoulder injury. He also has been held out of two games in Denver after his violent sickle-cell reaction while playing in the thin atmosphere in 2007.

Other than those games in Denver, he has not missed another over the past four seasons. He has trained in Arizona the past seven years and convinced outside linebacker LaMarr Woodley to join him this past offseason. Woodley has fought leg and ankle injuries that reduced his playing time and his effectiveness in 2011 and 2012.

Clark played some of his best football the past several seasons and made his first Pro Bowl after the 2011 season. He might have played even better last season while his partner at safety, Troy Polamalu, missed nine games with a calf injury that Polamalu has acknowledged might have been prevented with better care by him.

"He's coming off one of his better years," defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau said of Clark. "He's been playing really good football for some time."

Clark, who turns 34 in October, credits that to experience and to staying in shape.

"Sometimes, when you have injuries in the offseason, surgeries and different things like that, you're not allowed to train the way you have to in order to keep up with these young guys.

"But being healthy in the offseason has allowed me to train extremely hard and kind of bridge that gap physically in which you think you may have with a young guy but also having the experience and knowledge of a veteran."

Clark certainly has it right. It's on the player to properly condition themselves for the season. I posted previously about Herm Edwards talking about starting the season conditioned, otherwise a player is in constant 'catch-up' mode. If an injury happens, then it's a recovery mode, not a peak performance.

Anyone else find it surprising they are looking at Tez in the slot? Most I think had him penciled in opposite Taylor.

No offense but why does there need to be "studies" or "stats" to back everything up? What happened to a little bit of common freakin' sense in this world. Warming up helps avoid injuries. Period.

Anyone that has played a sport or even went to a gym could tell you that and they don't need to have some "study" to prove it. What's next?

Evidence based practice. It's better to have some evidence to back up practices then to just assume a practice works. Some evidence suggests that warming up or stretching don't prevent injuries. Athletes and people that stretch and warm up suffer injuries all the time. It is what it is.

I think injuries happen more due to the rigors and harshness of a particular sport.

Anyone else find it surprising they are looking at Tez in the slot? Most I think had him penciled in opposite Taylor.

I'd read somewhere that this is the third down plan. Tez would line up as the starter when there are two CBs in the game, and then move to the slot while Gay plays the outside when he comes into the game.

Evidence based practice. It's better to have some evidence to back up practices then to just assume a practice works. Some evidence suggests that warming up or stretching don't prevent injuries. Athletes and people that stretch and warm up suffer injuries all the time. It is what it is.

I think injuries happen more due to the rigors and harshness of a particular sport.

It's not assuming. It's common sense but then again common sense isn't so common these days. Articles like that are a waste of time because they provide zero context.. It doesn't provide any relevant information such as what stretches and/or warming up was performed, was it performed correctly, what sports/activities were performed afterwards and what was the time in between the warmups/stretches and the sport/activity performed. I would think those are some key variables that provide context.

Were the athletes olympic sprinters, wrestlers, or say, NFL players... or were the studies based on the olympic ping pong team "stretching" and warming up their wrists before a big match. lol

Injuries can happen regardless but that's not the point here. There is actually more evidence that "warming up" (increasing blood flow to muscles) before more rigorous activities is recommended than stretching in most instances (except maybe gymnastics and things like that).

It's not assuming. It's common sense but then again common sense isn't so common these days. Articles like that are a waste of time because they provide zero context.. It doesn't provide any relevant information such as what stretches and/or warming up was performed, was it performed correctly, what sports/activities were performed afterwards and what was the time in between the warmups/stretches and the sport/activity performed. I would think those are some key variables that provide context.

Were the athletes olympic sprinters, wrestlers, or say, NFL players... or were the studies based on the olympic ping pong team "stretching" and warming up their wrists before a big match. lol

Injuries can happen regardless but that's not the point here. There is actually more evidence that "warming up" (increasing blood flow to muscles) before more rigorous activities is recommended than stretching in most instances (except maybe gymnastics and things like that).

Warming up increases blood flow and stretching may help athletes feel more limber but that doesn't mean those factors help to prevent injuries in football. Players are going to get injured playing football regardless if they warm up or not, train all year round, come in well conditioned, ect ect ect. Teams can search high and low but there is very little teams can do to prevent injuries from happening in the game of football. The human body wasn't meant to go through the punishment necessary to play the game of football. The rampant use of PEDs probably puts players at a higher risk of injury more then any other factor.

Warming up increases blood flow and stretching may help athletes feel more limber but that doesn't mean those factors help to prevent injuries in football. Players are going to get injured playing football regardless if they warm up or not, train all year round, come in well conditioned, ect ect ect. Teams can search high and low but there is very little teams can do to prevent injuries from happening in the game of football. The human body wasn't meant to go through the punishment necessary to play the game of football. The rampant use of PEDs probably puts players at a higher risk of injury more then any other factor.

Nothing can guarantee prevention of injuries. Most people would agree that both stretching and warming up is a necessity in football. I think it's moronic that a head coach wouldn't require that after decades of first hand experience.

By the way, what do you know about what the human body was meant for? You know what? Spare me.